The competition recognises the best mixology talent among bartenders from cruiselines and ferry companies.
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| Velvet Fashionista by Holland America Line's Narciso 'Archie' Mariano Jr |
Promoting the recipes to guests
Bacardi created the global competition to test the world’s most passionate, innovative and inspiring bartenders and challenge them to create a Bacardi rum cocktail with the potential to become a classic, alongside the Mojito, Daiquirí and Old Cuban.
Contestants must create their own original cocktail featuring either Bacardi Superior, Bacardi Gold or Bacardi Ocho (8) Años.
Zachary Sulkes, International Key Account Manager Cruise, Bacardi Global Travel Retail, said the finalists are required to build on their recipe development skills and develop their prowess in sales and marketing.
“A fundamentally important phase of the competition is the measurement of how well the bartenders get behind their creation and demonstrate its potential to become established in the drinks industry as a true classic,” he said. “This can only be achieved by securing trial, consumer and trade awareness and distribution. So our five finalists are now busy promoting their recipe direct to guests and sharing it with fellow bartenders in their company so as to get it listed and served across the fleet. These are incredibly useful business skills that we help them to develop but are theirs to keep enabling them to further develop commercial acumen.”
From over 1,200 recipe entries, the final five and their cocktails are: Sanja Cvijetic, Carnival Cruise Line, with Purple Sunset; Narciso ‘Archie’ Mariano Jr – Holland America Line, Velvet Fashionista; Marc MacArthur, Norwegian Cruise Line, Up, up and Away; Siddhant Naik, P&O Cruises Australia,
Bitter Blanca; and Mattias Nilsson, Tallink Silja Line, Bring Back The Summer.
All five finalists receive $1,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to the finals in Puerto Rico. The 2019 Bacardi Legacy Cruise Bartender of the Year will go on to compete in the finals against 41 other finalists from different markets, in Amsterdam in May 2019 with $4,000 prize money on offer.
